Posted: May 18th, 2015

Freedom in mind in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

Paper, Order, or Assignment Requirements

I. In General 

A Herbst essay is neither a term paper (for which you must do research in outside sources) nor a 

position paper (in which you simply state your views of a subject). In a Herbst essay, you must work 

responsibly through a text for the purpose of understanding it better. In this process of understanding 

the text better, you will probably gain some insights into your own character or mind. These insights 

are particularly important when they illuminate some aspect of the text. Such personal insight should 

always be included in a Herbst essay.

II. Introduction

The introduction of an essay identifies the text and the author to be addressed; it also establishes a

clear goal, whether that goal be to explore an issue or to answer a question. An introduction should 
generate interest. Your reader should say, ‘Yes, that’s worth investigating,” or, “Hmmm. I wonder how 

this will turn out.” For the sake of generating and maintaining interest, therefore, your introduction 

should NOT include conclusions i.e., do not tell the reader what you will “prove” or “show” in your 

essay. To put this another way: your Herbst essay’s introduction is neither a technical abstract nor an 

introduction to a “five-paragraph essay,” like the ones you wrote in ninth grade. It should constitute an 

invitation to an intelligent reader to be drawn into your ideas–and, possibly, to be changed by them.

A final point: most successful essayists write their introductions LAST, after they have seen how their 

essays have turned out.

III. Manuscript Preparation

Your paper should be from 4 to 5 pages in length, double-spaced. Leave ample margins: at least 1 on 

the left and at the top, and 1 1/2″ on the right and at the bottom. These dimensions give a readable 

page with plenty of room for marginal and interlinear comments. Please do not waste your time over 

printer settings, though; just make sure that your paper is reader-friendly.

Give your paper a title. A title page is not necessary. Staple your paper in the upper left corner.

The topic of the essay:

1. What does Douglass mean when he states, “I now resolved that, however long I might remain a

slave in form, the day had passed forever when I would be a slave in fact” (chapter X, T 12). Once you 

have answered this, assess in what ways you, yourself, might be “free in form, but enslaved in fact.” 

Your answer should explore Douglass’s concept of what it means to be human. Make 

extensive use of the following passages: his entire interaction with Mr. Covey (chapter X), the 

description of Douglass’s Sundays looking over the Chesapeake Bay (chapter X), the slaves’ 

attempts to be chosen to go to ‘the Great House” (chapter 11).

Note:Use only one source and use the one I gave here please read all instruction above and also use only one source I will include a link for a pdf of the book bellow :

https://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Douglass/Narrative/Douglass_Narrative.pdf